


Nightmares and Revelations

by bananalestrange



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Post-Dark Swan Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 18:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5100683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananalestrange/pseuds/bananalestrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A late night conversation brings a shift to Emma and Regina's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmares and Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> I just love the idea of Emma being completely clueless about her own sexuality, it's one of my favourite things to explore.
> 
> Warning for mentions of past CS and OQ.

Regina blinked sleep out of her eyes as she walked towards the sound of the noise that had awoken her, a sound she had become all too familiar with. Stepping into the guest bedroom, her eyes rested on the woman in the bed, the woman who was currently flailing and crying out in her sleep.

Since defeating the Dark One, Emma had taken up residence in the former queen’s guest room, and arrangement that they had easily fallen into. After just two nights at her parent’s loft Emma had appeared at Regina's front door and all it took was a whisper from the blonde of “they look at me differently now” for her to become a permanent guest at the mansion. The dark acts Emma had committed had been enough to drive Hook away, and Regina's relationship with Robin had fizzled out into nothing while Regina's time was mostly spent trying to help Emma. Having Emma at the house made things less lonely and it made sense for Henry to have both parents under one roof.

Regina supposed that it was good for Emma too, to have her son and best friend there to support her when too few had during her brush with darkness. Though Emma was free of it, Regina couldn't help notice that the other woman often appeared tired and had a sadness to her that hadn't been before. Emma was getting better though, slowly her smiles returned as she played video games with her son or talked with Regina over drinks late at night. There were still reminders of her time as the Dark One though, most prominent were the violent nightmares she suffered from which had again woken Regina from her sleep and to the room that had become Emma's.

She approached the struggling blonde, gently placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt not to startle the blonde. “Emma, wake up” she whispered softly.

After several moments Emma finally snapped out of the nightmare that had awoken her looking wild and confused as she tried to take in her surroundings.

“It's me Emma, it's Regina, you're okay.”

“Regina?” the woman in the bed croaked out, becoming aware of her surroundings though still shaking and breathing quickly from the nightmare she’d had.

Regina sat on the edge of the bed hoping now that Emma had woken up she would calm down and settle back into sleep, but the other woman seemed more upset than usual and after no change in her panicked state, Regina lay down beside the woman and wrapped her arms around her. As soon as she settled against Emma, the blonde burst into tears and Regina continued to hold her hoping that her presence brought some kind of comfort.

“Regina I'm so sorry” Emma choked out after several long minutes. “You shouldn't have to deal with me like this, I'm sorry I came here, I'm sorry you have to take care of me.”

“Oh Emma.” Regina placed her hands around the sobbing woman’s face looking her in the eye. “You're not a burden to me, not at all. I know how hard it is overcoming the darkness. It took me a 28 year long curse plus lots of love and support every time I slipped up which was a lot, I'm sure you remember. This takes time, it's okay to have to rely on people sometimes, I'm happy to help.”

“I just don't want you to think you owe me. I took on the darkness to save you because I wanted to, you don't need to waste your time helping me because you feel obligated to.”

“And I'm doing this because I want to Emma” Regina stated firmly, still holding the other woman’s gaze. “I wouldn't have you here unless I absolutely wanted you here and I do Emma. Don't ever believe otherwise.” 

Emma buried her face in Regina's shoulder holding her tighter. Regina could feel her relaxing, becoming sleepy again.

“Thank you” Emma whispered shortly after. “I like being here too.”

“Then you can stay as long as you like. You can stay until you feel like yourself again and if you still want to stay you're most welcome.”

“I just want to feel better. Everything hurts sometimes Regina.”

“I know. And I know sometimes it feels like it will never get better but it will Emma, I promise it will. You'll move past this and start to feel like yourself again. I know you've done bad things but you can move on from that. You can live your life and get married and have more children or do whatever you want to do. This doesn't define you Emma.”

“I can't even imagine getting to the point where I'd want to get married again” Emma said starting to sound giddy from lack of sleep. “The only person I could think of marrying now would be you” she giggled. “Could you imagine the two of us married? Too bad we're both women.”

Regina frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well it's obvious, we’re women, we like men and all that.”

“I never said that.”

“But you were with Robin and Daniel and Graham.”

“And Maleficent! You honestly never caught onto that?”

“No I...Regina I'm sorry I didn't know. I'm sorry.”

“It's okay Emma.”

“You're not secretly in love with me are you?” Emma asked with another sleep-deprived giggle.

Silence.

“Regina?”

“Go back to sleep Emma.”

“Oh my god.”

“Emma it's not important.”

“Of course it's important! I ask you if you're in love with me and you go all quiet? I deserve to know something like that Regina!”

“Emma we have such a good relationship now, please just let this go” Regina pleaded.

“Since when?”

“Emma-”

“Since when? Please tell me.”

“Since you saved me from the wraith” Regina whispered. “When you said I wasn't dying. It was like I saw you for who who were. Before then you'd always been an obstacle but in that moment I saw a brave woman who would always do the right thing. I saw you. How could I not fall in love?”

“But you never said anything” Emma sounded slightly panicked now. “And what about Robin? I thought you were happy.”

Regina thought it was slightly ridiculous having this conversation when moments before she'd been attempting to comfort Emma, especially due to the fact that the other woman was still clinging to her but she pushed on, hoping this wouldn't break everything the two of them had built together.

“When was there ever time to say anything? You came back from the Enchanted Forest and then my mother showed up and there was always some threat that had to be dealt with. And then you were with Hook. It was too late Emma. And then Robin showed up and it just seemed like it was never the right time. And judging from your laughter at the idea of us being married, we never had a chance.”

“Regina I…” Emma trailed off looking uncertain as if she was attempting to rethink everything she knew.

“Emma listen to me. I care for you in many ways but I don't want this to change things. We're good where we are, I'm so happy to have you as a friend. I'm going to go back to my room and I hope that you can just forget this conversation.”

But when Regina moved to leave, Emma held on tighter and whispered “stay.”

“Emma-”

“Please. I feel better when you're here.” She was crying again and looked so broken that Regina couldn't refuse.

“Okay but no more talking. I've said too much.”

“I just never even thought…”

“It's okay Emma. Go to sleep.”

She did.

Regina lay awake for several hours before drifting into a fitful sleep as the sun was coming up.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Regina woke she was alone. She showered and went to her own room to get dressed slowly, dreading speaking to Emma after the night before. She felt sucking knowing she'd probably ruined the best friendship of her life with her carelessness and silently pleaded to any higher power that this could be fixed.

Emma was sitting in the kitchen when she went downstairs and mumbled a soft “hi” to Regina, who returned the greeting.

An awkward silence fell on the kitchen where the two women sat drinking their coffee.

“I'm an idiot” Emma blurted out moments later.

“Emma no” Regina began.

“Regina please just listen to me before you say anything because I woke up hours ago and have been thinking this through ever since. Let me just say what I need to.”

“Okay” Regina agreed feeling a pit of dread in her stomach.

“I'm an idiot” Emma repeated. “I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I sacrificed myself for you Regina! You don't just sacrifice yourself for anyone. And when you were undercover with Maleficent, Ursula, and Cruella I was hysterical, all I thought about was you and whether you were okay. And looking back, I was always drawn to you. When you weren't speaking to me because of Marian I felt like a piece of me was missing. It took me ages to be comfortable with Hook even touching me but with you I can wrap my arms around you and feel like there's nowhere else I'd rather be. It's always been you Regina, right there in front of me and I never even thought about it but now it's all I can think about and I don't understand how I could be so stupid not to see it. Last night you said it was too late for us. Please tell me it's not.”

“Emma I don't want you to force yourself into feeling something you don't really want, think about this.”

“I love you” Emma blurted out. “And I know it seems sudden, I feel like it came out of nowhere but I feel like it was always there too. I've always been with guys, it never crossed my mind to do anything differently. But as soon as I thought about it I knew. Of course it's you Regina.”

Both women were crying by that point, and without thinking found themselves wrapping each other in a tight hug, holding one another like a lifeline. After a few moments they found themselves looking at each other and slowly leaning in for a kiss. It started off tentative, neither woman knowing how to react to the sudden shift in their dynamic, but it soon grew desperate as they lost themselves in each other.

When they finally broke apart both Regina and Emma found themselves with giant grins on their faces and the two women burst into laughter for a moment before leaning into each other again.

“We’ll go slow” Regina said after awhile. “You're still recovering from the darkness and less than 24 hours ago I thought a chance with you had long past and you thought you weren't attracted to women. It'll take some adjusting.”

Emma nodded. “I'm just happy to be here with you” she said smiling brightly.

Regina pulled her into another hug and softly kissed the top of her head. “Me too Emma.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if anyone noticed but I had Regina say Emma's name a lot in this ficlet. It's basically a reference to the latest episode when Emma was so rattled at being called "Miss Swan" again, I kind of wanted to show Regina calling her by her name a lot of to signify that they were past everything she'd done as the Dark One.


End file.
